Greg Awtry

Bill Engvall, a stand up (blue collar) comic has made famous the phrase “Here’s your sign.” He does bits about people that do stupid things, saying they should all wear “I’m Stupid” signs.

He gives dozens of examples, like the time he had a flat tire. The gas station attendant came out and said, “Looks like you got a flat tire.” Bill Engvall looks at him funny and might say, “Nope! I was just driving around and the other three (tires) just swelled right up … here’s your sign!”

Well Bill, I have a day job for you. Your services can be used at the Obama administration. You could travel around Washington visiting nearly every federal department and agency handing out signs.

Bill, you could start at the Treasury Department. Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, is the one who cheated on his taxes, the one who now is in charge of our nation’s fiscal policy, and the one who believes we can spend our way to prosperity.

He needs a sign.

Then there is Nancy Pelosi and her now infamous line about the health care bill, “We have to pass it before we know what’s in it.” And about jobs, she says, “If you want to create jobs, the quickest way to do it is to provide more funding for food stamps …”

Think she needs an “I’m stupid” sign?

Now Bill, just a heads up. When you visit the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, allow yourself more time than usual, and bring more signs than you think you’ll need. Eric Holder, Attorney General of the U.S.A. is suing the state of Arizona because Arizona passed a law that would actually help him enforce our own laws.

He needs a sign. Don’t think so? Read on.

Jerry Seper, a reporter for the Washington Times, reported earlier this year the Department of Homeland Security warned the state of Arizona’s law enforcement that armed Mexican assassins have crossed into the United States and will attack anyone who disrupts their flow of illegal drugs. Why? Why warn Arizona law enforcement? If they help they get sued, if they can’t help, why warn them?

Janet Napolitano, ironically the former governor of Arizona, now head of Homeland Security needs a sign!

These armed assassins, according to Homeland Security’s memo, are “very well equipped and armed sicarios (assassins) complete with bullet proof vests … disguised as groups of backpackers.” They are there to protect their shipments of multi-ton loads of cocaine, heroine and marijuana, and are operating on American soil in southern Arizona.

The local sheriff has told of Mexican scouts on high points that “literally control movement.” He says they have radios, optics and night vision goggles and are 70 to 80 miles inside the U.S. operating only 40 miles from our fifth largest city, Phoenix. The sheriff also asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to be sent down there to help out.

Even U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security Department, said violence has risen dramatically and is now targeted at drug cartel rivals and federal, state and local police.

Bill, get your signs ready. What did the feds do about this? They posted signs, warning Americans that traveling here was unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers! The signs warn travelers they are entering an “Active drug and human smuggling area and that they may encounter armed criminals traveling at high rates of speed.”

Somebody in our government needs to wear a sign, ya think?

Maybe we should have done this at Pearl Harbor. We could have had signs displayed on our battleships, “No torpedoes allowed.” Or maybe we should have had signs hanging from the World Trade Center’s towers, saying “No Fly Zone.” That would have worked, right?

Or maybe the Obama administration should just “man-up” and protect the sovereignty of the United States of America and get these armed drug smugglers out of here instead of putting up signs warning Americans there are bad guys around.

Or maybe we all need to wear “stupid” signs for allowing this to happen to America.

Or maybe we just accept it and say, “It’s a sign of the times.”

If that’s how you feel, then, “Here’s your sign!”

You have all played a game of cards at some time. You study your hand and try to figure out what your opponents have in theirs. You make strategic bets, you keep a stoic poker face, you sometimes bluff, you keep your cards “close to the vest” until there comes a time when all the cards must be played.

We are reminded of Kenny Rogers’ famous song “The Gambler” in which he tells us we must, “ … know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.”

Well, the federal government should have listened a little more carefully to Kenny’s famous tune, because last week it was clear they were “out of aces”. The game was not called Texas Hold ‘em. It was called Arizona illegal immigration law, and the feds called on Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States of America, our America, to play out the hand.

This dangerous game has been taking place since 1986, the last time illegal immigration was seriously addressed. Under Ronald Reagan, several million illegals were given amnesty, and in exchange, the federal government would seal the borders. They were bluffing.

The American people had placed our bet on Washington keeping their word. They sucked us in then, and have been bluffing us for the past 24 years. They would campaign on the issue then bet on us forgetting about it. We would call their bet, and the same thing would happen for election cycle after election cycle.

Finally, Arizona went “all-in,” meaning they have had enough of this hand and were calling out the federal government once and for all. Arizona was saying they have a problem that has not been adequately addressed by the feds, so they were now going to enlist many of their state’s law enforcement officials to help poor old Uncle Sam enforce his own laws. And the time had finally come for our good uncle to put up or shut up.

It was a fantastic play by Arizona. The feds’ hand had been called and it was time to play their cards. Eric Holder, the now infamous attorney general who got caught bluffing earlier in the game, totally lost his poker face when he had to admit he had not even read the 16-page law, yet was publicly condemning it!

His second mistake was not folding and walking away.

Then, last Tuesday, Holder flipped his cards over for America to see. He didn’t praise Arizona for coming to the federal government’s aid; he filed a lawsuit against them, showing every single American citizen what we knew all along: Washingtonians don’t want to stop illegal immigration, haven’t wanted to for decades, and Arizona made them reveal it once and for all. It is now perfectly clear. The feds’ bluff was called and they were caught, holding a hand containing nothing but excuses and a lawsuit they will not win.

As you may recall, Kenny Rogers’ gambler tale took place “on a train bound for nowhere.” Fairly appropriate, wouldn’t you say, considering the United States’ shaky illegal immigration policy was nothing more than a scheme, a not-so-clever unsustainable bluff, finally laid out for all to see?

Arizona suspected the bluff, called the bet and waited to see how serious the feds were about enforcing their own immigration laws. And now we know. Obama’s administration, on a train bound for nowhere, has revealed once and for all that its illegal immigration policy has been built on nothing more than a house of cards.